Key learning points

1. One in twenty people lives close to an active volcano due to their fertile soils, tourist income and geothermal energy.
2. There are risks including: pyroclastic flows, ash and lahars.
3. Preparation such as public education as well as the monitoring of volcanoes can reduce risks to people living close by.
4. Short-term responses include local and international emergency services providing aid to people.
5. Long-term responses include infrastructure repair/rebuild in the months and years after the eruption.

Keywords

• Evacuate - to move people away from an area with a threat or hazard to a place of safety

• Infrastructure - all the basic systems in a country, such as transport and power supply

• Short-term response - actions that occur in the hours, days or weeks immediately after a disaster to help the basic needs of people

• Long-term response - actions that occur in the months or years after a disaster to help rebuild or recover from the effects

Common misconception